Shanghai Disney resort locks visitors inside after woman tests Covid positive

China, which is infamous for its strict Covid containment policies, locked down an entire Disney Park after a visitor tested positive for the virus.

Local authorities shut down Disneyland Park in Chuansha New Town, Shanghai, abruptly on Monday. All the visitors at the time were also locked inside. The development came after a 31-year-old woman, who had visited the park among other places in recent days, tested positive for the virus.

Apart from the theme park, the local authorities also closed nearby areas such as shopping streets. Several videos and images of panicked people running to the locked gates have been shared on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

One of the videos shows an employee telling the guests to "please return and take a tour in the park."

"The park's gates are all closed temporarily, and you cannot leave now," he says in the video. All guests were tested before being allowed to leave. Another video showed people clad in white protective suits taking swab samples from guests.

The city government had ordered everyone who had visited the park since Thursday to undergo three Covid-19 tests over three consecutive days, per The Independent. People complained of being left cold and hungry before they were allowed to leave.

Meanwhile, the park remains closed and there is no information on when it will be reopened. This is the second time that the park has been unexpectedly shut down. In November last year, around 30,000 people were left trapped inside the park after authorities decided to conduct mass testing.

Shanghai reported 97 cases of COVID-19 in the past 28 days, according to Johns Hopkins University. Across China, more than 178,000 cases have been reported in the last month.

China is the only major economy in the world that is following the zero-Covid policy by imposing snap lockdowns, forced quarantines, and travel curbs.

Last month, Chinese president Xi Jinping indicated that the country has no plans to relax its zero-Covid policy, adding that it was the "people's war to stop the spread of the virus."